Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Of course it wasn’t all work and no play, while at the Lion Project (but really everything we did while there was kind like having play time; except maybe the meat prep!). We learned we were allowed to go over to Thorntree River Lodge and enjoy their bar, as long as we had a guard with us on the trek over and back (Yes, those pesky Hippos again), so when I heard they had an espresso machine, I  talked most of volunteers into joining 3 or 4 evenings a week. Mind, I don't really know what the guards would have done, had we run into a hippo - throw their flashlight at it? After all it wasn't like they we carrying guns or even had a big stick, just a weak flashlight. I guess it was lucky we didn't have to find out.

 

Thorntree River Lodge

All was well with the coffee runs until the head security guard came back from his days off – scary physco stalker dude, or what! He would just walk into the volunteer house like he owned it, help himself to any leftovers from our dinners, and decided he would covet my LED flashlight and wouldn’t leave me alone about it, up to the point where he would tap on the window at night if he saw me sitting anywhere inside the house. I was nervous to even go outside for a smoke and it got to the point where we had to lock the door; I finally reported him to Cara, which was certainly a first for me! He just made the whole bunch of us uncomfortable. The other guys were a hoot and even came and got me one evening to show me the hippo grazing out the front, as they knew I really wanted to see one! Was sorry I didn’t take my camera, but then thought it was probably a good thing, as the flash might have startled it and then who knows what may have happened. It so cool to be able to stand about 10 feet away from such a beast and just watch it grazing, how many people get a chance to do that?!

Indian dinner in Livingstone

A couple of evenings we all hopped in cabs and went into Livingstone for dinner and, as there was a full moon while we were there we went to the Falls to see the Lunar rainbow over Victoria Falls. Can’t say it was worth the $25.00 they charged to be able to stand at the top of the falls and see it, but can now say ‘been there, done that’.

 

Most evenings were spent just hanging around the volunteer house trying to upload pictures to Flickr ( trying to keep my mouth closed in 'the drop zone'!)and having early evenings.